The Malaysian prime minister, however, added that the investigation must be carried out further to establish all details of the tragic event

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak

SINGAPORE, September 9. /ITAR-TASS/. Preliminary investigation findings of the tragic MH17 flight crash lead to a serious suspicion that the airliner was downed by a ground-to-air missile, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Malaysian prime minister, however, added that the investigation must be carried out further to establish all details of the tragic event.

Dutch Safety Board publishes preliminary report

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the investigation and coordinating the international team of investigators, said in its preliminary report published on Tuesday that “Flight MH17 with a Boeing 777-200 operated by Malaysia Airlines broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.”

According to the report, all data collected from the cockpit recorder, the flight data recorder and the traffic control suggested that the flight proceeded normally until 4:20 p.m. local Ukrainian time (13:20 UTC), when it was suddenly lost.

“A full listening of the communications among the crew members in the cockpit recorded on the cockpit voice recorder revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation,” the report said. “The flight data recorder registered no aircraft system warnings, and aircraft engine parameters were consistent with normal operation during the flight.”

Chairman of the Dutch Safety Board Tjibbe Joustra said that the findings presented in Tuesday’s report were preliminary and the investigation’s final report would be published by mid-July next year.

“The preliminary report issues the first findings in an ongoing investigation,” Joustra said. “From this point on, the investigation team will be working towards producing its final report. The [Dutch Safety] Board aims to publish this report within one year of the date of the crash.”

MH17 crash in Ukraine

The Boeing 777-200 of the Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Region, some 60 km (over 37 miles) from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defense forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the aircraft - 298 people - died. Most of the passengers - 196 people - were Dutch citizens.

International experts from the Netherlands, Australia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began arriving at the airliner crash site near the settlement of Hrabove, 79 km (49 miles) north of Donetsk, since July 31 in search of the missing bodies of passengers and aircraft’s remains. Before that, they had not been able to carry out their search operation for a week over incessant fighting between the local self-defense militia and pro-Kiev troops.

The search resumed after the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire around the airliner wreckage area and on a security corridor for the arrival of experts and their work at the crash site.